The Baby Makers.

Anna Reardon is a young and struggling artist,looking for a way out of the world she lives in. By chance, her answer comes from the In Vitro Fertilisation Experiment, otherwise known as IFE. But suddenly Anna is plunged into a world of moral confliction, controversial health issues and faced with hard hitting questions.
Can you conceive a child, without becoming a mother?
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Chapters:

She stared at herself in the
cracked and grimy mirror. Through the dirt she could barely
recognise herself as the girl she was six years ago. At twenty
two, Anna Reardon's future did not look promising. Losing contact
with her parents shortly after the moved out of home at sixteen,
she was forced to fend for herself against the cruel and barren
world, and the effects were becoming evident.
Her collar bones jaunted out at sharp angles, leading as vector
lines to thing and gangly arms. She lifted her shirt briefly to
see her concave, white stomach and prominent hip bones. Shaking
her head in disgust she carefully surveyed her face. Once a
pretty girl, Anna's weight loss had shockingly removed all signs
of life from her serious, sour face. Her huge green eyes look
empty and cold and her cheeks were sunken and pale. She turned
her head this way and that, making her small nose stud glint in
the last rays of afternoon light. She needed a haircut. Her long,
black hair was nearly at her belly button, and it stank of
cigarette smoke and oil paints.
Ever so carefully, Anna curved the outsides of her mouth into a
gentle grimace. She was staring at a stranger.

It grew cold and dark as Anna
sat in her dingy apartment. Her electricity and gas had been shut
off a month ago, but she hardly noticed. Taking a long draw of
her last cigarette, she lit a few stumpy candles and set out a
canvas on her easel. Once a prospering young artist, Anna had
lost her way in the world. Sidetracked by drugs and prostitution,
her efforts at making a living and reputation began to
dwindle.
By the flickering light, she twirled a piece of charcoal between
her forefinger and thumb. Gently rubbing it across the canvas,
she created a head, over sized. Two curled up arms and legs, tiny
thumbs, toes, a body and lastly, a protective barrier around it
all.
She worked long into the night, sipping at stone cold coffee and
letting her hands go numb, exposed to the icy air.There is nothing left for me here, she thought. I
have nothing to lose.
Ever so gently she reached into one of her pockets and withdrew a
folded scrap of paper. She stared long and hard at the name and
number, before making up her mind.
Jumping up, she grabbed her bag and purse, opened the door and
raced down the stairs of her apartment block, forgetting to lock
the door behind her. She rarely did these days, as there was
little to steal in her home. Reaching the bottom of the stairs,
she dodged Ellen, who woke with a start as she clattered
past.
"Oh! Hey Anna." she said, sitting up groggily.
"Hello Ellen." replied Anna, smiling wearily at the drug affected
girl.
Barely older than sixteen, she lay in the midst of a trip on the
apartment block stairs.
"Lost my keys again." She said, to no one in particular and fell
back against the stairs.
Anna hurried on, into the biting wind of outdoor Melbourne. Her
feet making indents on the snowy ground. The phone booth had seen
better days, as it stood, enclosed by scummy apartments and
brothels. She opened the cracked glass door and tumbled inside,
looking at her stolen watch, wondering if anyone would answer her
call at 2:00 am. It was a relief to be out of the weather and
Anna leaned against the side of the glass, her eyes drooping and
she fumbled for the piece of paper.
She dialled the number and pushed in the last of her coins into
the machine.
"Hello this is Doctor Thompson speaking." A sleepy voice
answered.
"Hi..umm Doctor Thompson..This is Anna Reardon, I'm calling about
your offer."